The three legged Philae lander detached from Rosetta and started it’s descent to th2.5-mile-wide 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet. (Picture: AP Photo/ESA)

The three-legged Philae lander marked a new stage in the history of space exploration yesterday – as the unmanned craft made a controlled landing on a comet.

It’s the first such controlled landing in human history – and Philae’s scientific instruments could help scientists unlock secrets of the dawn of our solar system, and of life itself.

European Space Agency flight director Andrea Accomazzo said: “We can’t be happier than we are now. We have definitely confirmed that the lander is on the surface.”

So far, details of the landing are scant, but Philae is still operational – and guaranteed a place in the record books.

Previously, NASA projects have landed craft on the fast-moving icy balls, but they have been destroyed on impact.

Scientists study comets because they are ‘time capsules’ – balls of ice frozen 4.6 billion years ago, as the Solar System formed.

Their chemistry could offer clues to why life formed on Earth – and if it exists elsewhere.

The Philae lander has separated from the Rosetta orbiter, and is now on its way to becoming the first spacecraft to touch down on a comet. Picture: Universal News And Sport (Europe) 12 November 2014.

The three-leggged lander, about the size of a dishwasher, signalled to its parent ship Rosetta that the descent had been a succcess.

A hint of a possible problem came later when Dr Koen Geurts, technical manager at the lander control centre in Cologne, revealed that the harpoons had not fired, as had first been thought.

Dr Geurts said: “Philae is doing great. We’ve seen the touch-down signal; this means we landed on the comet, we touched the surface.”

Early indications were that the probe had come to rest on soft ground.

Then Dr Geurts added: “The anchors did not shoot. This is causing us some concern at the moment because without this anchoring we can’t say for certain that we are fixed on the comet. We are considering if we need to re-try shooting the anchors.”

The lander had faced difficuties – one of its thrusters failed – scientists had to use harpoons to anchor it in place after its seven-hour descent.

Once Philae is released, it had no way to steer, and scientists had little idea what the surface is actually like.

The Rosetta spacecraft has orbited comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko since August.

A handout image captured October 23, 2014, from a distance of about 7.8 km (4.8 miles) from the surface (Picture: Reuters)

A handout image captured October 23, 2014, from a distance of about 7.8 km (4.8 miles) from the surface, of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (Picture: Reuters)

Comets are lost balls of ice which have wandered since the formation of the 4.6-billion-year-old solar system.

Scientists believe they may have brought much of the water in today’s oceans.